Abstract

There are two crucial issues for analyzing the behavior of micro-inhomogeneous materials: One is how to determine the characteristics of constituent components of the micro-continuum which are directly affected by their molecular movement, and another is how to relate the microscopic characteristics to the macroscopic behavior. Bentonite clay is a typical micro-inhomogeneous material. We proposed a unified method of Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Homogenization Analysis (HA) (henceforth, abbreviated as the unified MD/HA method) for treating these materials (Kawamura et al. 1997). The method can involve the molecular and macro-continuum behaviors in a seamless manner. That is, for determining the properties of each constituent component we apply the MD, then for relating the microscopic characteristics to the macroscopic behavior the HA is used. We here apply it to the water flow (i.e., seepage) problem in bentonite clay.